A series of columns on property rights, resource
providers (farmers, loggers, miners, ranchers, and recreationists) and the
continuing situation in west central Ohio, first with U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service and then with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
by Julie Kay Smithson, property rights researcher, author, speaker and
activist. New Book of Vital Importance Available!
The Acronym Glossary is not just acronyms but also contains
definitions, case law and treaty law summaries, and definitions from
United Nations glossaries. The Acronym Glossary book is massive, 1000
pages in a locking D-ring binder, with 350 pages of addenda coming in
2002! Also included in this project is a CD-ROM that will have the
entire text of the book, all ONE THOUSAND PAGES of it! "AG" is a must for
your toolbox of knowledge and your ability to understand words and phases
used by government, non-governmental organizations, and special interest
groups.
Now, for the first time, this information is available
at your fingertips! Years of research have produced a locking D-ring
binder brimming with information. This book was compiled to
illustrate how our language has been muddied. It is an unparalleled
research tool. How many can make sense out of "ICBEMP, MORPC, ALAGSG,
CANAMEX, NAMBLA, TROUS, ECOSOC, WQMSGL"? Each of these acronyms in this
sentence, and thousands more, is explained in this book!. To a rancher,
terms that are familiar to a fisherman would be unreadable. To an urban
resident, the laws familiar to a farmer or miner could be new and
uncharted territory.
This book should be in every library, at the elbow of
every conservative talk show host, on the shelves of county Farm Bureau
offices, County Commissioners, Mayors, Township Trustees, 4H groups, FFA
groups, property rights grassroots groups and attorneys. For all who read
this book, there is abundant fuel for launching America's "Ship of
Freedom" back into friendly waters!
The $50 price includes shipping within the continental
US, plus the book on CD and TWO addendums, totaling 1,000
pages! For foreign orders, please include $10 shipping to cover additional
costs.
Please send check or money order to:
J. K.
Smithson
213 Thorn Locust Lane
London, OH 43140
Click here
to open a printable Order Form
February 2002 Darby
Update
February is certainly unusual in west-central
Ohio in 2002: the snow is non-existent and the temps have been above
normal for much of the new year.
Both Stewards Of the Darby (SOD)
and Citizens Against the Refuge Proposal (CARP) held meetings recently,
apparently to assess the current situation with the EPA-driven efforts to
implement the restrictive Clean Water Act in a community that has
exemplified stewardship and clean water WITHOUT federal, state or local
restriction/directives. Both groups have met sporadically over the
past year since US Fish & Wildlife Service publicly stated that it had
given up in its attempt to create a Federal wildlife refuge in Madison and
Union Counties in Ohio.
www.propertyrightsresearch.org
continues to be an excellent and ever-expanding and improving
research/resource tool for those interested in disseminating facts:
Not only the situation in the Darby Plains/Darby Watershed area of
Ohio is available for the reading/printing, but also the dilemmas that
resource providers, homeowners and others with land and water use issues,
is here to help!
January 2002 Darby Update
and Website Announcement!
As of January 1, 2002, the No
Darby Refuge website, created in August 1999 by Jim Slaughter, and grown
into a fine property rights website that has helped many to learn about
various different issues relating to property rights in general, and the
Darby area of Ohio in particular, is undergoing some major
changes.
Jim has suffered some health problems and has handed
over the reins to Julie Kay Smithson, who is very proud to 'inherit' this
wonderful site. However, Julie has never run a website before, so
the webmaster duties will be capably handled by Gerry Ullery of Dolphin
Enterprises, www.gilanet.com/dolphin
Both Julie and Gerry are looking forward with excitement to the new look
of the site, which will remain as user-friendly as ever! Please
check www.proertyrightsresearch.org
often, and recommend it to your friends!
November 2001 Darby
Update
While the "Darby Creek Watershed Project
Watershed Planning Group" continues "full steam ahead" with its agenda,
members of our local rural community feel that they must stay involved in
order to know what's being foisted on us at every turn (Endangered Species
Act, or ESA; Clean Water Act, or CWA; point and non-point source
pollution, or PSP and NPSP; total maximum daily load, or TMDL; riparian
buffers, or RB; the "Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program" or CREP;
conservation easements, or CEs; and "alphabet soup" ad
nauseum).
Because one agency appears to have been kept away, we
must keep in mind that others have taken their place, and those who seek
to acquire, by whatever means possible, our rural lands and heritage, have
not given up, and shall not. A famous saying: Eternal vigilance is the
price of freedom, is never truer than today!
Networking with others
in like situations/dilemmas has meant a trip to western Nevada to speak to
both American AgriWomen (AAW) and California Women for Agriculture (CWA)
as well as American Women in Forestry.
While we are getting better
at something that the "environmental" groups have used for years
(networking), it is still a "mixed bag" of response. Some are enthusiastic
and ready to meet and mingle with other resource providers (farmers,
ranchers, miners, loggers, recreationists). A few are of the fatalistic,
"we've already lost" mindset. Others are shocked by the facts ("the United
Nations and foreign creditors have been in cahoots to collateralize our
country's natural resources???"). Still another contingent "goes ostrich,"
and tunes out the truth.
On the return trip, a lovely visit with
Wayne Hage and his wife, Helen Chenoweth-Hage, at their Nevada ranch was
scheduled, only to be cut short by the rustling (read: stealing or theft)
of 62 head of neighboring rancher Ben Colvin's cattle, and the subsequent
"sealed-bid only" auction of them at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
auction facility at Palomino Valley, NV, five hours away. The Hage's, ever
the reliable neighbors and patriots that they are, were up and away at 4
am to drive through snow for 5 hours, to stand up with their neighbor and
try to help.
How many readers have seen Ben
Colvin's story in the national print or television media? If not, why
not?
The buyer of the cattle was a 19-year-old from
California who used his grandmother's credit card for the purchase. Please
keep in mind that these cattle did NOT belong to the BLM, and were Ben
Colvin's property. Mr. Colvin has adjudicated grazing rights, which gives
him up to 7 miles of grazing for his cattle from each water source on his
ranch. His cattle were NOT guilty of trespassing, and he does NOT owe any
fines to the BLM. Facts aside, an agency of the Federal government, a
branch of the same Department of the Interior (Gale Norton) whose U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Marine
Fisheries Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and National Park Service,
continue to work de facto (without law) to decimate America's ability to
remain independent.
Why, you ask? Our natural resources, and our
ability to use them to take care of our needs and maintain our freedom,
have been collateralized to foreign creditors to keep us begging for
loans. The reasons for not being "allowed" to access and utilize our
natural resources (timber, grazing, farming, and mining, along with
recreationalist pursuits) are publicized as being: to preserve endangered
species, "protect" water quality and old growth timber, etc. The truth is
that collateral loses value when it is used. Collateral, in the eyes of
the creditor, must be kept pristine, so that if the borrower defaults on
the loan, the creditor recoups his/her investment by TAKING THE
COLLATERAL. Please think hard and long on this, dear reader!
Our
ability to consume locally-produced products at affordable prices not only
saves on "fossil fuel consumption" by saving on the distance that the
goods (gas, food, lumber, minerals, medicines, etc.) are transported, but
also keeps us free and independent as a country. This is what America is
all about. Our great and God-blessed country has in the past led the way
for others to emulate. We have set the standard for others; that is
precisely why so many come to our shores to live and realize "the American
Dream!"
By using the resources and sweatshops/cheap labor of other
countries, we are contributing to their continued servitude. Purchasing
something made in China, for example, does not elevate the standard of
living for the average Chinese laborer. The revenue generated serves only
to perpetuate the terrible poverty that enshrouds those faraway countries.
While Americans may visit the tourist areas of other countries, they do
not see the rural custom and culture that is being destroyed. Our own
country is at high risk of the same happening; we simply must realize this
fact, and stand together in this time of opportunity. We have the chance
to make things better, not only for us, but for people everywhere, but NOT
succumbing to false advertising/guilt trips! Knowledge of truth is a
powerful asset; being kept in the dark by other than the truth is a
terrible persecution.
This reporter is encouraged by the exchange
of email addresses, problems, possible solutions, and energy that happened
in Sparks, Nevada, and sees a light at the end of the tunnel that is NOT a
train!
She asks that everyone reading this update consider/continue
to make phone calls, send emails (and letters and faxes when they once
again become possible), attend meetings, and talk to everyone everywhere
about this. It is NOT just in someone else's backyard: it is in YOUR
backyard, whether you are
yet aware of it or not, and in your
neighbor's backyard, and your family and friends' backyards!
Please
go to our Links page and spend time at the websites listed there.
Consider the truth, and ask others to read www.propertyrightsresearch.org
. It does not matter if the reader be rural or urban,
American or anywhere else on the planet: this giant environmental hoax
that is simply business and generated by the profit motive, is
EVERYWHERE.
August/September 2001 Darby
Update
August and September in Ohio, in the Darby farmland:
Nothing appears to be moving but the tasseled corn. The "dogs days of
summer" preclude most activity within our 200-year-old rural culture. The
soybeans ripen, the cicadas sing, and the air is pregnant with
anticipation at the fall harvest. However, this apparent lack of action
should not lull the residents into a false sense of security, because the
elected officials and non-governmental organizations continue to work
feverishly for their agendas. For example, there is now a large group
calling themselves the "Darby Creek Watershed Project," comprised of
"stakeholders" whose eighteen month "vision" and "mission" is to "protect
water quality" to initiate a "watershed planning process. " While we who
live within this "watershed" have repeatedly asked those who are heading
this project, what IS it that needs to be done to improve upon what we are
ALREADY doing, and doing without GRANT MONEY, we have yet to receive a
real answer. They blithely attempt to smooth over our concern at having
questions regarding the NEED for this, and wax ecstatic over the
stakeholders who will "all have a say" in "the process." The facilitators
of the two meetings held thus far have reassured the area's residents that
compliance will be strictly voluntary. The website that has been set up
for this "project" is owned and operated by none other than The Nature
Conservancy, and emails to that site, www.bigdarby.org go to Jan Burkey, of
TNC.
The implementation of the Clean Water Act for the
ENTIRE Darby Watershed, which includes both the Big and Little Darby
Creeks, involves eight counties, and could ultimately have an even greater
and more permanent impact on the area than the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service's "proposed federal wildlife refuge."
In fact, our area is
crawling with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees, ostensibly
taking "water quality samples," and trespassing on a regular basis on
private property. License plates from as far away as Georgia (a white
sport utility vehicle whose driver was trespassing on private property,
and was "collecting endangered species") have been documented, and the
formerly friendly rural mood has darkened. No Trespassing signs are
multiplying rapidly, and residents maintain a loosely organized
"neighborhood watch" program over one another's farms and homes, much more
so than in the
"good ole days."
Travel to distant places, to speak about property
rights issues, has been dampened by the horrific events of Tuesday,
September 11, 2001. Even farmers whose fields received irrigation water,
bought and paid for, "too little, too late" in the Klamath Irrigation
District of southern Oregon and extreme northern California, struck a
truce and vacated the Headgates of the "A" Canal in Klamath Falls,
choosing rather to help their city neighbors in the East with donations
and supplies.
Life will go on, and one Oregon farmer said it
well:
"We may now be expected to go to war for America, little knowing
if we will even have farms to come back to, because of the undue influence
and pressure that is destroying our American custom and culture as
resource providers due to the Endangered Species Act and the uninhibited
lust that the non-governmental agencies (notably the Nature Conservancy
and the Sierra Club among others) have for our lands. Almost one hundred
years of 'sweat equity' are valued at as little as $28 per acre, and our
wildlife refuge inhabitants are suffering, too, at the hands of those who
profess to love wildlife, the 'environmentalists'"
July 2001 Darby
Update
July in Ohio, characterized by the three H's: heat,
haze and humidity, and truly the dog days of summer! July found various
Stewards of the Darby attending several meetings, from Madison County Farm
Bureau to zoning. A presence at each of these events is so important! The
Acronym Glossary that had been worked on so long, was finally ready to
print, completed on July 10th, but with two addendums yet to come. 650
pages plus the book on CD, make this property-rights focused work a vital
resource tool to those struggling with the "alphabet soup" and
unintelligible "definitions" that abound in various Department of Interior
and other government documents and in the conversation/agenda at meetings.
Please see Press Release on this very important book on the Julie Says
page, and order your copy today; with only 500 signed and numbered
limited first editions, don't miss your chance to have a priceless
piece of armor in your fight for freedom! Also in mid-month, Julie
and Wiggles Blue Heeler traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, to attend the
second annual Freedom 21 Conference, hosted by Henry Lamb's Sovereignty
International. Julie's trip was made possible by the generosity and
kindness of Thomas Cochran (Zanesfield, OH), who was a longtime scheduler
for the 700AM WLW Radio talk show, Bill Boshears SciZone, which has a
38-state radio listening audience, and global coverage through the ability
to listen on the Internet. As the month closed, plans were in the works
for a trip to take much-needed supplies to the beleagured farmers in the
Klamath Basin (Oregon/California).
June 2001 Darby
Update
While local and state elected officials continue to
discount the "alive and well" status of the "proposed Little Darby
National Wildlife Refuge," the Madison County Commissioners held a secret
meeting in late May, closed to the general public and the press, with
officials from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), Department
of Agriculture (USDA) and the Governor's office, to discuss the
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) "in lieu of" the proposed
refuge. Apparently, the above entities believe that P.T. Barnum's saying
is false. They seem to concur that you CAN fool all the people (within the
Study Area and the rural community) all the time.
CREP is more akin
to opening the door for US Fish & Wildlife Service than it is an "in
lieu of" proposal. Saying that the proposed three hundred foot setbacks
from ALL streams in Madison County is "strictly voluntary," the "behind
closed doors" bunch is contradicting themselves. If this proposal were so
grand, why would they meet in secret to foist it on our
community?
A meeting was held by Stewards of the Darby (SOD) at the
Rosedale Bible College on June 26th, to discuss CREP. About thirty-five
were in attendance, including London attorney Chris Brown, who spoke at
length, warning the audience of the pitfalls of CREP, and its danger to
private property rights. "Don't sign ANYTHING," he was quoted as
saying.
Julia Cummings, of Madison Soil and Water Conservation
District, was in attendance, and offered her "take" on CREP, being a
proponent. She was outnumbered, and was given many reasons for the
opposition to the CREP program. When asked what the farmers were doing
wrong, that called for CREP to regulate them, she could offer not a single
reason. Other events attended by refuge and CREP opposition, to hand
out literature and talk to the public about our area and property rights,
was the Capitol Cruisers drive-in in West Jefferson on May 5th and June
2nd; there was a SOD tent at the first annual London Strawberry Festival
from June 13-16.
Please continue to contact us with your knowledge
of these issues wherever they may surface, your questions about property
rights, and how we may help you, and your prayers and support!
https://www.propertyrightsresearch.org
continues to be a firm bastion in the defense of property rights and
other American freedoms!
May 2001 Darby
Update
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have NOT given up
and gone away! The "Proposed Little Darby National Wildlife Refuge" is
still alive and "well."
Between the Madison County Commissioners'
plan to acquire 1,000-foot setbacks from ALL streams that flow through
Madison County; to the State of Ohio Department of Natural Resources,
Department of Agriculture and the Governor's Office meeting, not with
local landowners (the real stakeholders), but with
"local officials" to
discuss "alternatives," we are far from being out of the
woods!
Thomas Larson, Chief of Ascertainment and Planning for
Region 3, FWS, says in a recent email:
"Subject: Status of the Proposed Little Darby
NWR
Date: 4/20/01 6:07:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Thomas_Larson@fws.gov
To:
propertyrights@earthlink.net
Dear Miss Smithson:
I am writting
(sp.) in response to your inquiry as to the status of the Little Darby
National Wildlife Refuge proposal. Since last fall the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service has put the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
development process on hold, waiting while Ohio Congressional
representatives explore options for addressing natural resource related
issues in the area of the Little Darby Creek. As you probably know, the
Governor of Ohio has recently asked the Director of the Ohio Department of
Natural Resources and the Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture
to meet with local officials in the proposed refuge area to discuss the
available options to achieve natural resource objectives in the
area.
The Service is still waiting on any further action
regarding the completion of the EIS to give the Congressional delegation
and the Governor's representatives ample opportunity to explore all
avenues that could result in meeting the needs of the local community
while ensuring the preservation of the natural resource of the area. Thank
you for your continued interest and active participation in the
discussions related to the long term preservation of the natural resources
of the Little Darby Creek system.
Sincerely,
Thomas J. Larson
Chief, Ascertainment
and Planning
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Bishop Henry Whipple
Federal Building
1 Federal Drive
Ft. Snelling, MN
55111-4056
Phone: 612/713-5430
Fax: 612/713-5285
Planning Web
Site: https://www.fws.gov/r3pao/planning/
"
You may e-mail Governor Taft at Governor.Taft@das.state.oh.us
Governor
Taft values your views and opinions, and his staff monitors these
messages. If you would like a written response to your concerns, please
include your mailing address in your e-mail. Responses are sent via U.S.
mail. You will not receive a response via e-mail. If you'd like to contact
Governor Taft by U.S. postal mail, address your correspondence to:
Governor Bob Taft
30th Floor
77 South High
Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6117
Phone 614-466-3555 or
614-644-HELP
-----------------------
Agriculture agri@odant.agri.state.oh.us
614-728-6200 614-466-4346
-----------------------
Natural Resources
cynthia.tinapple@dnr.state.oh.us
614-265-6565 614-261-9601
-----------------------
I'm off for
Eureka, Montana, with a black walnut log in the pickup truck, ready to
stand by Jim Hurst and the timber industry in America, to "return the
favor" that they rendered to us so kindly last Labor Day weekend, when the
famed Jarbridge Shovels were hauled to Ohio in Mr. Hurst's Grim Reaper
semi! www.loghaul.com |